


A No-Good Bae-ry Bad Night

by 2pork



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: A Pinch of Dramatics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Some Humor, Sort Of, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, but it's definitely a fake date, not quite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-22 23:51:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13177878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2pork/pseuds/2pork
Summary: Jinyoung's strange proposal a week earlier was only the beginning of a very long Christmas Eve for Jihoon.





	A No-Good Bae-ry Bad Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tenhasmelit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenhasmelit/gifts).



Jihoon walks out of his last class for the day, a gruelling three-hour lecture on Politics, to find Bae Jinyoung standing in the hallway, fire in his eyes and jaw carved from stone. For a moment, he wonders if Jinyoung is here to talk to him, but it’s a moment he comes to regret when Jinyoung stalks over at the sight of him and lowers himself on one knee. “What are you doing, Bae Jinyoung?” Jihoon asks, taking a bewildered step back.

“I need a favor, hyung,” replies Jinyoung, face straight but with a distinct air of exhaustion. He looks like a man who has gone through all of his options and finally reached the end of his rope.

“Why does this favor need you to kneel in front of me in public?”

“It doesn’t,” Jinyoung admits. “But I wanted to get into the feel of it.”

Jihoon has heard a lot of ridiculous things in his life, but this one really takes the cake. Humming thoughtfully, he considers the length of the hallway where his classmates have taken the time to stay and record this event on their phones. Does he really have to stay and listen to this? Jinyoung may look and sound a little desperate, but if he has the consciousness for theatrics, his problem can’t possibly be that bad, can it?

Nodding decisively, Jihoon manages to take two huge steps away before a strong grip on his arm drags him back to where he started.

Jinyoung stares at him, disgruntled. “Hyung, please. This is a matter of life and death to me.”

The hand tightens its grasp when Jihoon tries once more to shimmy away. “Fine!” he exclaims, eyes darting skittishly at the phones held up in their direction. “But can we _at least_ take this elsewhere?”

Jinyoung nods and leads him by the arm away from the cameras, navigating Jihoon’s college with a strange level of expertise for someone who is in a different major. The frown on his face prevails, getting deeper the longer they go without speaking.

'Probably overthinking whatever it is,’ Jihoon guesses. There are times when Jinyoung just goes quiet, looking more tired and troubled as time passes, but he doesn’t talk to Jihoon about it. Some days the mood follows him until he goes home, but most of the time Jinyoung bounces back to harassing Jihoon away from his food so they can hit the arcades before the dorm curfew. This expression Jinyoung has on right now is similarly dark, too somber and aged for his young face.

As Jinyoung tugs him into an empty classroom, Jihoon surmises that today is the day that Jinyoung will finally talk to him about his problems. It would be good if that’s the case. Frankly, he has every reason to be invested in Jinyoung’s wellbeing, and it’s not exactly limited to their friendship.

“Hyung,” Jinyoung starts—positioned so that he’s blocking the door with his body. “I need you to be my date for my family’s Christmas dinner.”

Jihoon freezes, the words setting off all his internal alarms. “Um. What?”

“Please be my date for my family’s Christmas dinner.”

“H-hold on a sec,” says Jihoon. “First of all, by 'um, what?’ I meant you need to elaborate because I have no idea why you’re saying what you’re saying. Second of all, why are you asking _me_?”

“You’re my only friend in this university, hyung,” Jinyoung answers like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Jihoon points out the existence of their freshman friend Guanlin.

“My only friend who can act.”

Jihoon pauses. At least he had intended it to be a pause, but deciding that Jinyoung really needs to explain everything in detail, he takes a seat on one of the tables and raises his eyebrows expectantly. There is a tingling sensation on the small of his back that’s a little hard to ignore, but he manages.

Reluctant, Jinyoung steps closer and sits beside him. For a couple of minutes they stay like that, Jihoon waiting for the other’s explanation and Jinyoung worrying his lower lip, trying to organize his thoughts. After a while, Jinyoung lifts his head and looks Jihoon in the eye. “I don’t have a soulmark,” he confesses.

“You—” Jihoon bites his lip, his own private worries flying out of his head. It’s not unheard of to lack a soulmark, certainly. The words scrawled on one’s body will fade over time after a soulmate’s death. There have also been cases of being born without a soulmark, and that’s understandable in its own way too. Sometimes soulmates just don’t meet in one lifetime. That doesn’t make it any less painful, Jihoon thinks, for someone who keeps hoping. “I’m sorry, Jinyoungie.”

Something sparks in Jinyoung’s eyes that is quickly extinguished by a ripple of amusement. “It’s alright, hyung. I don’t care about it that much.” The _not anymore_ hangs in the air unspoken, but Jihoon feels the significance of it. “I met someone like me.”

Jihoon gasps.

“I know,” chuckles Jinyoung. His laughter is light, as if something weighing on him for a long time has finally been lifted from his shoulders. “It’s an amazing coincidence. But hyung, you have to meet him! He’s so… he’s wonderful. So kind and caring, and just unbelievably beautiful.”

The words are so sincere it’s heart-clenching to listen, sounding almost too private for Jihoon’s ears. “What’s his name?” he asks. “How did you two meet?”

“Remember how we had to move to another house because the apartment building was going to be torn down?”

Jihoon nods, recalling the period in question as stressful for his friend. Jinyoung had retreated into himself, back to how he had been when Jihoon had first met him, unwilling to share the burdens of his family until everything was settled.

“They’re the neighbors at our new place. His name is Lee Daehwi and he’s living with his cousin, Woojin-hyung.”

“Oh, I see.” He studies Jinyoung. “Honestly, you don’t strike me as the type to approach a new neighbor.”

“You’re right. Daehwi and Woojin-hyung came over with a pot of ramyeon because that was the only thing they could cook.”

Jihoon’s eyes widen. “They _didn’t_.”

“They did,” confirms Jinyoung.

“ _They’re adorable_.”

Jinyoung smiles at that and says, “My mom thought so too. That’s pretty much why they’ve been invited to our Christmas dinner.”

“That makes sense. A pot of ramyeon, god, I want to feed them too—” Jihoon cuts himself off, a passing thought that has been niggling at the back of his mind finally shoving its way to the spotlight. Daehwi and his cousin are _going to the Christmas dinner_? He massages the bridge of his nose as he tries to wrap his head around it. “Wait, wait. Go back to the part where you want me to be your fake date at the Christmas dinner that the love of your life will also be attending. And please, for the love of god, tell me what on earth is wrong with your head.”

  
  


Jinyoung’s method of persuasion isn’t so much logic as dogged pursuit. Jihoon could have countered logic and laughed in the face of aegyo, but getting past single-minded harassment is beyond him. Out of the classroom, down the corridors, and all the way into the quad where quite a lot of Jihoon’s classmates were still loitering, Jinyoung had hounded after him, reeling everyone’s drifting attentions back in with the level of urgency in his motions. Jihoon, for his part, had only been doing his best to get away.

Regardless, Jinyoung had gotten the better of him by virtue of having longer legs and indefatigable stamina, which is how Jihoon finds himself standing at the corner of a street on Christmas Eve, waiting for Jinyoung to answer his phone. “Pick up, Bae Jinyoung, pick uuuup,” he mutters into the receiver, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Why aren’t you picking up after begging me on your knees to be your date? If you weren’t going to pick up, the least you could’ve done was text your exact address. Ugh, I shouldn’t have agreed to this...”

“Are you Bae Jinyoung’s date?” comes a voice definitely not from his phone.

Jihoon stills for the longest time, frozen with the phone still to his ear, that spot on his back burning almost painfully. He had wondered about the words printed on his lower back since he was very young. _Who is Bae Jinyoung and why would I be his date?_ And then he had met Jinyoung in university and they had gotten to be friends, but two years passed with no sign of Jinyoung asking him on a date appearing (until last week) and Jihoon had resigned himself to being an anomaly or a very, very late bloomer.

The only thing he knows for certain are his words, and they have just been spoken to him.

_Are you Bae Jinyoung’s date?_

Shocked by what had happened, Jihoon couldn’t even speak. He raises his head and sees a guy in front of him, sharp eyes on a face that can only be described as _unfriendly_. He looks like he’s about to beat someone up for being a nuisance, and Jihoon briefly wonders if it’s him.

“Hey, I’m asking if you’re Bae Jinyoung’s date.” The guy spits out the word _date_ as if it’s poison, and oh god, he really is mad at Jihoon for something, isn’t he? When Jihoon nods in the affirmative, the other looks him up and down in judgment and promptly scowls at whatever conclusion he comes to. “Come on, then,” he jerks his head and stomps down the street, clearly expecting Jihoon to follow so Jihoon does, skipping several times to keep up.

From what Jinyoung had told him, aside from Jihoon there should only be Jinyoung’s mother and the two neighbors attending the dinner. Somehow, he highly doubts this is the kind and caring Daehwi.

Woojin is fast, and so painfully uninterested in Jihoon that it’s starting to hurt his pride a little. So far he has only shown implications of short temper. With horror dawns the realization that as much as Jinyoung had waxed poetic about his Daehwi, there hadn’t been much said about this Woojin person. For all Jihoon knows, this guy could have it out for everyone within his immediate vicinity—though how Woojin managed to be endearing enough to be invited to Christmas dinner with such an abrupt attitude, Jihoon has yet to determine. He must have some measure of goodness, or be able to put up a front, to pass muster under Jinyoung’s mother’s critical eyes.

As Woojin leads the way to their apartment building, Jihoon considers the situation he’d landed himself into. First of all, either Woojin is still conscientious despite his bad mood or Jihoon is currently following his ill-tempered soulmate to his own impending peril. Honestly, if Daehwi is half the person Jinyoung is making him out to be, Jihoon wouldn’t put it past him to harmoniously live with someone so tetchy as this Woojin has turned out. Much more preferable than the other ideas, Jihoon doesn’t cross out the possibility that this is simply a mood that will eventually pass, and that Woojin is actually a pretty nice guy otherwise.

Jihoon stares at the view of Woojin’s unwelcoming back and hopes it’s the latter, for Jinyoung’s sake. It’ll be difficult trying to juggle whatever he’s planning with a crush and a fake date _and_ a cantankerous cousin. Perhaps Jihoon should help smooth things over? Then again, he could also end up making things worse, but… looking at the situation now, it can only go up from here. Besides, doesn’t Jihoon deserve a good first encounter with his soulmate?

Tension rises between them for a reason Jihoon can’t comprehend. Right as they reach the entrance of an apartment building, Woojin stops in his tracks. A loud scoff pierces the air, and then Woojin is spinning on one foot to face Jihoon, anger plain as day on the hard lines of his face. His eyes burn into Jihoon’s, a fierce and unyielding glow amidst the spreading darkness.

Woojin bares his teeth, inexplicably rearing to tear Jihoon to pieces, but just as suddenly a look of surprise crosses his face and he reigns himself in with a deep shuddering breath. Eyes pinched tight and muscles clenched, it takes a while for Woojin to relax into something more remorseful. In the next moment, he mutters to Jihoon, “Sorry, I was about to take my bad mood out on you. Just forget about it.”

Jihoon shakes his head, waving the incident off. “Will you be okay for the Christmas dinner?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’ll be…” Woojin trails off, mouth dropping open.

“Woojin-ssi?” Jihoon bites his lower lip, the awkwardness multiplying in the prolonged silence. “You _are_ Woojin, aren’t you? It’s just that Jinyoungie described Daehwi a bit and… I imagined someone softer.”

A furrow forms on Woojin’s brows when Jinyoung is mentioned, but other than that and a near inaudible, “Yeah, I’m Woojin,” his eyes remain trained on Jihoon, roaming his features more slowly than they did before, as if drinking in every single detail. He appears to be standing a lot closer than he is with his sharp eyes catching each of Jihoon’s movements, the smallest twitch of Jihoon’s lips tracked immediately. Jihoon’s thoughts come to a stuttering halt, his earlier disappointment vanishing in the wake of this close scrutiny.

“It’s you,” Woojin whispers.

Air rushes out of Jihoon’s lungs in one shaky breath. Something in his chest flutters in anticipation, this moment so immense and pivotal that, minutes ago on that street corner, he could never have imagined it happening to him. But he doesn’t need to imagine it now.

Jihoon has met his soulmate outside Jinyoung’s place where they will both be attending Christmas dinner. Where Jihoon is present as Jinyoung’s date (god knows why).

He covers his mouth with a shaking hand. “What the hell is happening?” he asks, not expecting an answer, but Woojin is right here in this moment with him, sighing into the same space.

Sharp, steady eyes soften into uncertainty. Woojin says, “I don’t know, but I’m really starting to dislike Bae Jinyoung.”

  
  


Jinyoung slides the door open, greeting Jihoon with a delighted open-mouthed laugh. “Hyung, you made it! I thought Woojin-hyung wouldn’t be able to find you, you were taking so long!” He ushers both Jihoon and Woojin in, not giving either a chance to respond. Jihoon gets a brief introduction to Daehwi—who is exactly how he imagined: cute and cuddly—as they pass the kitchen. Woojin stomps past him to the living room and Jihoon is left behind to wonder at the abrupt shift in behavior.

Daehwi pats him on the shoulder, encouraging, though Jihoon can’t see why he should be. “Don’t worry too much about Woojin-hyung,” he says. “He’s a little wound up right now because of something, but I’m sure it’ll all blow over by the time we all go home.”

Jihoon doubts that, but he smiles at Daehwi anyway. “If you say so.” He sticks his head into the kitchen and calls a cheerful hello to Jinyoung’s mother. “Auntie, I’m here!”

She straightens up from where she’s pulling something out of the oven, turning in his direction. “Jihoon-ah, welcome! We’re just about done with dinner. Why don’t you relax a bit in the living room with Woojin?” she suggests, clearly never having been exposed to the wrong side of Woojin’s attitude.

“I will, Auntie. That looks really good! I’m looking forward to dinner.” Jihoon spares a final appreciative hum as he gazes at the food laid out on the kitchen table. Satisfied with the warm scents wafting around, he steps back into the hallway, only to find Daehwi and Jinyoung sharing concerned glances.

Jinyoung jolts when he notices Jihoon’s attention on them and coughs into his fist. “Hyung, come on and let’s get you settled,” he says while grinning unnaturally wide. Suspicious. He leaves Jihoon at the living room doorway, throwing a startled look at something inside before bolting away to the direction of the kitchen. “You just get cozy over there, hyung, I’ll fetch you when it’s time to eat.”

“A-alright,” Jihoon responds, bewildered by the dizzying contrasts in everyone’s moods. Peering into the living room with more care than usual, he spots the rapid movement of Woojin’s head where he is slouched on the sofa, the sounds of him tapping on his phone with a surplus of aggression starting up at once. The other makes no move to acknowledge Jihoon in any way, and it frustrates him that they’ve returned to this so soon.

He walks into the room and sits on a different chair, determined to ignore Woojin just as much. Never mind that he’s here as Jinyoung’s date, and considering how Jinyoung is very much attached to either the kitchen or Daehwi, Jihoon might as well not be. The next few minutes after making this decision, however, Jihoon is already fidgeting with the hem of his sweater, pouting heavily at the carpet as the seconds continue to tick by in relative quiet.

It’s a painful eternity before Jihoon decides to call it quits. The loud tapping that served as fuel to his own vengeful silence had long ceased, which Jihoon had attributed to Woojin taking a nap at the time. A stolen glance shows otherwise, because the eyes that had been resolutely locked to the screen are still wide open and glued once more to Jihoon.

Woojin’s lips thin, thoughts running a mile a minute. He has something bothering him, it shows, and it’s apparent too from how the words struggle to get out that he doesn’t quite want to figure it out. After a few more moments, he squares his shoulders. “Did you really agree to date him?” Woojin asks, his gaze intent and unwavering.

“I didn’t,” Jihoon says and, finally getting the double-take he’d been hanging after since the street corner, leans back into his chair in satisfaction.

“What does that mean? You’re his date, aren’t you?”

“I am, I think?”

“Can’t you be _any_ clearer?” Woojin demands.

Jihoon can’t admit that he understands it just as much as Woojin does. He’s not sure how much he can reveal either, since Jinyoung’s plans—if they even exist—haven’t been explained to him in detail. Or at all. So he says, “No, I can’t,” and leaves it at that.

Harsh whispering filters in from the hall that sounds disturbingly like Jinyoung and Daehwi, but they disappear in a patter of footsteps. Jihoon inspects the doorway, hoping it will provide some hint on how to proceed. Really, he and Woojin should be discussing the whole soulmates thing. That’s what he wants, and it seems like that’s what Woojin has been trying to lead up to.

Woojin heaves a harsh sigh and starts up again with, “Look, I think we—”

“Guys, dinner!” chirps Daehwi from the hallway, smiling obliviously. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Jinyoung is right behind him, walking over to pull Jihoon up to his feet. “Come on, hyung. We made fried chicken for you.”

“Uh… yeah, that sounds great,” Jihoon says and allows himself to be led by the waist to the dining table, conscious of the intense stare fixed onto his back.

  
  


Dinner is a frazzled affair, mostly on Jihoon’s end of things. After an entire evening of ignoring Jihoon for Daehwi, Jinyoung lets loose with a barrage of physical affection, piling food on Jihoon’s plate and even spooning a first bite straight to Jihoon’s lips. “Aaah,” he coaxes so sweetly that Jihoon can’t help but comply, a flush rising to his cheeks at the audience. Meanwhile, Woojin has a hard time focusing on his food, what with his attention divided between the spectacle of PDA and Daehwi, who is studying Woojin back and getting progressively more smug the more Woojin descends into anger, which in itself increases as Jinyoung amps up the skinship.

Jihoon wonders how Jinyoung’s mother can stand it. And then he actually looks at her sitting there bestowing a part-benevolent, part-amused smile around the table, and realizes that she must be in on whatever plan Jinyoung and Daehwi have concocted.

The last straw snaps when Jinyoung holds a chicken leg up in front of Jihoon’s mouth. “Hyung, I saved the last piece for you,” he coos, and suddenly Woojin is setting down his utensils with restrained force and gritting out, “Thank you for the food,” before all but dashing away from the table.

Jihoon debates on whether or not he should push away the chicken and decides, _in for a penny, in for a pound_ , and bites into it instead. While chewing, he surveys the guilty faces around him thoughtfully. “So what’s all this about?” he asks, because surely now he’ll get an answer.

Not all that surprisingly, it’s Daehwi that answers, “It was my plan.”

“Your plan… to achieve what?”

“It’s just, Woojin-hyung doesn’t seem to be all that interested in finding his soulmate at all,” Daehwi confesses with eyes that shine with concern. “So, you know, what’s the harm in a little date? And it’s Christmas! He should be jollying it up! Not—doing _that_.”

Jihoon bobs his head, opting to accept that explanation at face value. “Okay, but… am I supposed to be Woojin’s date then?” He frowns at Daehwi’s keen nod. “So why am I here as Jinyoung’s date?”

Jinyoung goes on the defensive, widening his eyes at Daehwi. “You said to get him here by any means necessary!” he cries. “Hyung would never have come if he knew it would be a blind date!”

That much is technically true. Jinyoung doesn’t know about the soulmark either, so he wouldn’t have known that Jihoon had been waiting for this moment for a long time, which brings him to the conclusion that fate sure works in mysterious ways. “Why not explain after I got here?”

Daehwi and Jinyoung exchange a quiet conversation by way of eyebrow movement. Jinyoung shrugs emphatically, and Daehwi turns to Jihoon with hints of his earlier triumph. “Well, Woojin-hyung found out about our plan so he was already in a pretty bad mood to begin with. After we sent him out to fetch you, we noticed he came back in an even worse mood, but when we peeked into the living room he kept staring at you, hyung. So we figured he might’ve liked you at least a little?”

“Yup, that’s why I flirted a bit at dinner. We wanted to see how he’d react,” Jinyoung confirms.

Jihoon squints at Jinyoung’s mother.

“I’m only here for moral support,” she asserts. “Did you enjoy dinner, dear?”

“Yes, Auntie.  I’m really glad Jinyoungie invited me over, even if… it didn’t go how it was supposed to.”

They lapse into silence, the niceties over. On one side, Woojin’s place at the table is glaringly empty.

Daehwi sighs, “I’ll go look for Woojin-hyung,” and makes to get up, but Jihoon waves him down. He blinks in confusion. “Hyung?”

“I’ll get him,” Jihoon assures Daehwi, smiling. “We need to talk about something anyway.”

Smiling back a little dubiously, Daehwi sits back down, only relaxing when Jinyoung remains unruffled. “Alright, hyung.”

In the end, Jihoon doesn’t get very far. Woojin is standing right outside the kitchen, eyes glinting in the yellow lighting of the hallway. He tilts his head towards the front door, already turning to leave.

Jihoon gives a brief glance towards the kitchen, where the three are already clearing up the table, and follows Woojin outside.

  
  


“You didn’t say anything about us being soulmates,” Woojin notes, his voice quiet and pondering. “I thought you would.”

They’re back on the street corner, standing side by side, teetering between possibilities. The choice before them emerges impossibly big. It’s a lot darker now and, through the shadows dancing with the headlights of passing cars, the streets appear to stretch out into the distant black. Jihoon knows, in the vague way life tends to be, that out there is somewhere he wants to be, something he needs to work towards, but it’s all lost in the mist of indecision.

There’s a swelling sense that they need to take a path to see the morning that lies beyond it.

Jihoon unfurls his fist, just now noticing the pressure of nails against his palm. “I wasn’t sure if I should.”

“It’s your life.”

“It’s your life too,” Jihoon says, resigned. “Daehwi said that you weren’t interested in finding your soulmate, so I just didn’t say anything in case…”

Woojin looks at him, open and expectant for the first time.

“...you didn’t want anything to do with me after this,” Jihoon finishes.

A breath trembles in the air.

Strong and proud shoulders droop slightly as Woojin exhales, and then it’s just a boy standing before Jihoon, as lost and scared as he is. “I only said that to get him off my back. I’m not… I’m not uninterested.”

“Oh.” Jihoon lowers his gaze to the ground as he mulls this over,  not looking up even when he hears the shuffle of shoes on the pavement.

“Jihoon-ssi,” Woojin utters, almost drowned out by a car speeding past. “Do you want to go out for coffee with me?”

Jihoon’s heart skips at the question. “But Daehwi? And it’s Christmas eve, all the cafes will be full.”

“Daehwi will be fine.” Of this, Woojin sounds confident enough. _Or else,_ seems to be silently tacked on, but that’s for Jinyoung to worry about. “I’ll text him later. And... I think we can find a place. Don’t you?”

'Not really,’ Jihoon thinks, but he doesn’t want to let go of this just yet either. He grins at Woojin. “We can try.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not exactly fake-dating, but I hope you like it!


End file.
